Roar Guru
The Canberra Raiders nearly caused the upset against Sydney last week and should be favoured to fire at home against the Canterbury Bulldogs in a big game for both sides. Join us for live scores and commentary from 3.00pm AEST.
Despite losing by six points to the Roosters, Canberra certainly showed enough to suggest that they have what it takes to sneak into the finals.
The Raiders will be desperate to turn up at home today, given that their last home outing saw them succumb to an historic defeat to Melbourne a fortnight ago.
With Blake Ferguson back to his best last week after a month out of action due to ill-discipline, Canberra certainly possess enough fire power to secure a much needed victory at home.
The Bulldogs are coming off a surprise loss to the Titans on Monday and really need to bounce back today to get their premiership campaign back on track.
Overall, today’s contest promises to be a very entertaining and high scoring affair.
Prediction
Origin stars Josh Papalii and Ferguson were superb against the Roosters last week and are the men most likely to spark Canberra to life against the Bulldogs today.
If Papalii and Ferguson can replicate their performances last week, Canberra possess enough fire power to secure a strong victory at home.
Ferguson in particular needs to be kept quite if the Bulldogs are a chance of securing the win. The NSW Origin centre scored two terrific tries against the Roosters and also had a hand in two others.
In short, if Ferguson plays well, the Raiders play well and they invariably go on to post big scores against their opposition.
If Ferguson is kept quiet, the Bulldogs will go a long way to denting a Raiders attack that can lose its way against an organised defensive line.
The Bulldogs will also look to dominate up the middle of the park with their extremely mobile pack.
Melbourne destroyed Canberra up the middle a fortnight ago and Canterbury will be looking to do the same here with Michael Ennis, James Graham, Tony Williams and Frank Pritchard leading the way.
Without Barba, Sam Kasiano and Greg Eastwood in the side however, the Bulldogs may struggle to score the points needed to keep Canberra at bay, especially if Raiders stars Ferguson and Papalii play well.
Raiders by six.